De Foodhallen Amsterdam - review

I may have moaned in the past about the quality of food in some, but not all, Dutch establishments and I'm certainly not going to apologise for that. Bad food is bad food and there's no clawing yourself back from that. I'm fussy about what I eat, I enjoy good food, so what's your problem? Thankfully there is a change in the foodie scene here and happily so, good food is on the rise and more so with the recent opening last year of the De FoodHallen.

De Food Hallen is located only a 10 minute tram ride from Amsterdam Centraal or Lelylaan stations and only a stones throw from De Kinkerstraat and what a gem it is. It is pretty hidden away, on the day I went there was a market on the street outside and I almost walked past it. Ok, when I say I've been there only once I liked it so much I intend to go back as soon as possible, why, because there's only so much food you can sample in one go.So what is De foodhallen? It is a number of food stalls in a large building, each has an open kitchen where you can see your food being prepared, the essence of each stall is that it is simple food done well. It was reminiscent of visiting Borough market in London the only difference being these were just food stalls and not market stalls selling the ingredients as well. I do hope that it does turn into that as well. There are two large restaurants as well, Meat West and Halte 3, but my initial focus was trying as much of the individual stalls as possible.

For me this was like being a kid in a sweetshop, every stall had tantalising smells and scrumptious looking food and I simply didn't know where to start. When I finally found a seat and had time to compose myself, I started with a hotdog from Bulls and Dogs, not just any old hotdog but a "luxurious hotdog" with a truffle and mushroom mayonnaise in a pretzel bread style hot dog bun. The dog was tasty, meaty, well cooked and not grisly, the mayonnaise was lovely not too much truffle, just enough to give it that luxurious hit and a good mushroomy hit. My friend had the classic which came with a ketchup and mustard sauce.

Next up was a tosti (what else) but not just any old tosti from Caulil's Kaas, an oude kaas with some chives through it on a lovely crisp sourdough bread, with the right hint of oozyness.We finished our visit with some softshell crab buns, from the stand next to the gin and tonic bar and I'm cursing myself that the name eludes me at present. The crab was sweet and crispy and the buns were the right side of doughy like the traditional steamed buns you get in dim sum.Of course I'm going to have to go back, as there's plenty more stalls for me to try and it's reassuring to know that good food is alive and well and living in De Hallen!